Jean Rabe - The Silver Stair

She took a tentative step forward and considered climbing this new stairway, though she doubted she could manage more than a few feet. Another step.

"Ouch!" Bending down, she saw a nail. There was a small pile of them, and a hammer nearby-Jasper's hammer. The nails and hammer hadn't been there a heartbeat before. When she again looked up to see the stairs, the land had changed once more. Hedges, carefully trimmed, circled the steps and flowed outward like spilled ink. She skittered back several steps to avoid being overrun by the bushes. Springing up around them were large pearls.

Not pearls, she realized as she stared longer and the globes grew to dwarf her. Buildings. They ringed her and the hedges and the stairway like a bracelet. As she tried to take it all in, she heard voices. Coming from all around her, they were talking to her, though she saw no one, only shadows moving about within the globes.

"Teach me." The voice was young and feminine.

"I want to help others." An elderly man's voice.

"Teach me."

"I don't understand this… this power of the heart. Is that what you call it?" This was a coarse voice, sounding almost dwarflike.

"Teach me."

"I want to make a difference." The young, feminine voice again. "Show me how."

"Teach me. Please."

"Teach me… teach me… teach me." The words repeated like the persistent buzzing of a bee. More and more shadows flitted inside the globes, pressing themselves against the glass, looking out at her, whispering to her, asking her to teach them. "Teach me." It had become a resonant mantra.

Goldmoon could almost make out faces.

" I… I will teach you," she heard herself say. "All of you. I will…" Her words trailed off as the globes melted into the ground, and the grass ran like water away from her in all directions. The stars winked into view again, gemstones on velvet, and the Silver Stair that had seemed several yards away was now beneath her feet, the topmost step tingling with magical energy. She was impossibly high above the earth once more.

The air was cold again, and the breeze whipped her silver-gold hair madly about her face. She brushed away the strands, carefully pivoted on the balls of her feet, and slowly made her way down the waiting stairs.

"Goldmoon! Are you all right?" Gair was at the edge of the clearing where he had picked up her lantern. Concern was etched deeply on his young face. Jasper tromped past him as fast as his stumpy legs would carry him, his eyes locked on to the shimmering stairway, mouth open in amazement, all thoughts of whatever or whoever had been watching them instantly discarded. The dwarf mumbled a greeting to Goldmoon as he brushed by her and approached the celestial ladder.

Goldmoon knelt to retrieve her cloak, slipped into her sandals. "I'm fine, Gair," she answered. "I feel… well." The ache was gone from her legs and she breathed easily, as if she hadn't undertaken the laborious climb up the magical staircase or the long walk to reach the clearing. "I'm just a little tired. It's been a long day."

Goldmoon watched as the relieved elf left her side to circle the staircase. The dwarf stood unmoving, like a rock, about a yard away from the base of the Silver Stair and was mumbling something in his native tongue. The elf couldn't contain his curiosity, touching the steps, feeling the energy tingle beneath his fingertips. He climbed up the first half-dozen steps, craning his neck toward the stars above, then scampered down, his cautious nature winning out, and nearly knocking Jasper over.

"You climbed it," Gair began as he rushed back to her side. "I saw you coming down just as we got here. You looked like you were walking on air. Did you go all the way to the top?"

Goldmoon nodded, a smile playing gently across her lined face as she saw the dwarf finally move. He inched closer, knelt in front of the stair as if it were an altar, prodded at the bottom step with the scrutinizing eye of an engineer. "What's it made of?" she heard him ask. "It's not metal. Amazin'."

"I can't even see the top," the elf interjected. "What's up there, anyway?"

The aging healer drew her lower lip into her mouth. It still tasted faintly of blood. "I'm not sure, Gair. Everything. Nothing. You must climb it and find out yourself."

The elf was clearly fascinated by the structure, as he was with magic in general, drawn to it like a moth to light. Again he scampered up the first few steps, nearly trampling Jasper's questing fingers. He craned his neck upward and narrowed his eyes. The dwarf continued to prod at the lowest step.

"Truly amazin'," Jasper said in a hushed tone.

"Tales say the Silver Stair only shows itself by the light of the moon," Goldmoon explained as she glanced around the clearing. She thought she'd heard a twig snap somewhere nearby.

"Wish my Uncle Flint were alive to see this." Jasper cocked his head. "Hmmph. On second thought, maybe he did. He traveled quite a bit. Amazin'." The dwarf looked up at his elven friend, rooted on the seventh step, still staring at the stars and trying to see the top of the stairway. "Go ahead, Gair."

The elf didn't budge.

"Well, you gonna climb it?"

The elf shook his head and leapt nimbly to the ground.

"Ah, the wariness of youth," the dwarf grumbled. "You never take chances."

"Some other time," Gair replied. "I'm sure we'll return here. I'll climb it then."

"Return?" Goldmoon stopped her survey of the clearing. "Gair, Jasper, I'm not leaving, not for a long time. Perhaps not for the rest of my life."

Behind the elf, Jasper chattered happily to himself. "Well, at least I won't have to climb the stairway tonight then. There'll be plenty of time later. An' then maybe I can figure out what it's made of. Not metal, that's for certain. Tomorrow night, I think, I'll climb it. Maybe I can get some sleep now." He tromped a few feet away from the Celestial Ladder and settled himself on the ground, cradling his head with his folded arms, his face pointing toward the magical structure.

"Not leaving?" The elf's mouth gaped open, then he quickly regained his composure and presented his serious face. "You're going to stay here? But Goldmoon, what about your students in Abanasinia? You've so much to offer them, and they have so much yet to learn."

"We'll send word for them to join us." She reached into her pack and retrieved a thin blanket, carefully spread it on the ground near the base of the stairway, and lay down. She arranged her pack to use as a pillow. Despite the warm night air, she pulled her cloak over her. "I'll teach them here."

The elf scanned the clearing, remembering the prickling sensation on his neck. The sensation was gone now, and whatever or whoever had been watching them was likely gone with it. Maybe it was just a forest animal. He vowed to look for tracks in the morning.

As he considered the situation, a chorus of crickets rose around him, accompanied by the sonorous tone of Jasper's snoring. He turned to glance again at the magical stairway, stepped closer, and bent to touch the bottom step. Energy pulsed through it, and he felt a tingling sensation against his slender fingers. He ran his hand along the edge of the step, then along the underside.

"All right," the elf pronounced to himself as he concentrated on the tingling energy that continued to pulse through his fingertips. "I suppose I could get used to the woods again. We can stay here for a while, anyway." He swatted at a mosquito with his free hand and stared up the spiral staircase. "So beautiful."

"It's so beautiful." Camilla Weoledge stood on the bow of a small carrack as it eased up to the dock.

"Indeed it is a most lovely town, Commander." The Solamnic lieutenant at her side snapped to attention as Camilla strode past him down the gangplank and onto the dock, not waiting until the ship was properly moored. Her boot heels clicked rhythmically over the weathered wood, and her lieutenant hurried to catch up.